Lately there’s a lot of updating activity coming from Mountain View . Last week two of the most used Google apps (Chromeand Drive) got . Today we are getting the next round with a re-designed interface and new features for the Android version of Gmailand Google Calendar.

Gmail: Sorts emails into Tabbed Categories

Let’s start from Gmail. The upcoming redesign of Gmail was timidly announced at but a few hours ago Google has made it official in its blog, adding even a trailer you can watch just after the break. The major changes in the interface will be introduced in the web version of Gmail in the upcoming weeks. The main novelty is related to a new tabbed-navigation. Inbox gets divided in tabs in order to provide a better filtering to inputs. For example, social-related messages will be included in the “social” tab, integrated with users’ social accounts which will allow users to comment and post status directly from their inbox. The goal of this new interface is making inbox less overwhelming and easier to manage.

Unlike browser version, Android/iOS version is already hitting Google Play and the Appstore and is expected to reach all the compatible devices within the next few days. If you haven’t received the update notification yet, be patient, it’s rolling out, you’ll get it. What can you expect from that update? An enhanced navigation between tags, folders and the new categories mentioned above (primary, social, promotions, updates and any other category defined by the user) accessible from a Holo-style left sidebar. If you don’t get used to it, you can simply switch it off and go back to classic view. This update will be only available for Android 4.0 and iPhone/iPad users.

Calendar: Custom colors and new UI for events and time pickers

Google made Calendar app available on Google Play back in October. Since then, we haven’t had news from that front. Until now. Calendar for Android is finally getting some of the features it was missing which works on making it more usable than it actually was. First off, it gets custom colors which is a really appreciated feature on desktop: it allows users to reassign colors to events directly from the app. Likewise, the whole UI has been revamped for event and time pickers, including time zone and circled icons for weekdays. Thus, calendar is now set in Holo look that makes navigation more intuitive and the app, comprehensibly more usable.